Aircraft crew attendant seats, or jump seats, are commonly provided in cockpits or passenger cabins. Passenger cabin attendant seats are typically used by the passenger cabin flight attendant crew, especially during takeoff and landing, and are typically located near an emergency exit to allow a flight attendant to readily open an exit door if necessary in the event of an emergency. Such passenger cabin crew attendant seats also are commonly designed to be folded when not in use to maintain clear pathways to emergency exits.
One conventional flight attendant's folding seat assembly is known that is mounted to a wall in an aircraft cabin includes a seat pan that can be unfolded and pulled down to an open position against a seat return spring, with cams that are actuated by the seat pan frame that urge the seat back into a downwardly and forwardly sloping seating orientation, and rearward force exerted by a user against the seat back frame is reacted through the cams into the supporting wall, so that the seat pan is not forced to close on the seated occupant. The seat pan frame is provided with a contoured seat cushion that complements contouring of a seat back cushion.
Another conventional seat or chair for an aircraft flight attendant includes a backrest section and a seat section hinged to each other and to a frame allowing the backrest and seat sections to take up different angular positions.
A crashworthy rear-facing aircraft passenger seat is known that includes forward, intermediate and rearward energy absorbers attached between the seat and the floor of the aircraft, and having the capability of operating in both tension and compression, for absorbing energy during a crash. The seat also can flex along with crash-induced distortions of the floor to prevent separation of the seat from the floor during a crash.
It would be desirable to provide a compact aircraft cabin crew attendant seat that utilizes carbon fiber reinforced composite as the main structural material of the crew attendant seat to significantly reduce weight of the crew attendant seat as compared with conventional crew attendant seats. It would also be desirable to provide a compact aircraft cabin crew attendant seat in which a full enclosure of the primary components and seat cushions of the crew attendant seat are formed by a “clam shell” action of folding the seat. It would also be desirable to provide a compact aircraft cabin crew attendant seat that incorporates a shock load absorption system into the seat structure by the utilization of hydraulic and/or friction dampers. It would also be desirable to provide a compact aircraft cabin crew attendant seat that reduces the depth requirement of the crew attendant seat. The present invention meets these and other needs.